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Jeb Bush sees no family 'baggage'

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, speaking on a bevy of news programs Sunday morning, declined to address his own future but said he didn’t think any run for the presidency would be dragged down by “Bush baggage.”

As part of a tour on behalf of his new book “Immigration Wars,” the Republican notable was seen and heard on the five big morning shows (“Face the Nation,” “State of the Union,” Fox News Sunday,” “Meet the Press” and “This Week”), as well as Univision. Though the prime topic of the book is immigration, the discussion Sunday kept circling back to electoral politics, particularly his own ambitions.

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Bush declined to discuss any decisions he might have made about the 2016 presidential election — it was too soon, he told Candy Crowley on CNN’s “State of the Union” and others on subsequent programs — but did say he thought his family name would not be a hindrance for him.

“I don’t think there’s any Bush baggage at all,” Bush said on “Fox News Sunday” when confronted with a poll that showed almost a full majority of Americans have an unfavorable impression of former President George W. Bush.

He told host Chris Wallace: “I love my brother, I’m proud of his accomplishments. I love my dad. I am proud to be a Bush.”

The topic came up on NBC’s “Meet the Press” as well.

“I think history will be kind to George W. Bush,” he said on that program.

The former Florida governor said that his father, George H.W. Bush, was initially poorly regarded in the aftermath of his loss to Bill Clinton in 1992. But now, Bush said, his father’s image has been rehabilitated.

“A lot of his accomplishments were overshadowed by the ‘92 election. And over time, people began to view my dad in a different light than they did shortly after his tenure as president,” he said on “Meet the Press.”

“Everywhere I go at least, he’s a beloved guy,” Bush said about his 88-year-old father. He predicted something similar would happen to his brother, who left office in January 2009.

Meanwhile, Bush pushed back on those who saw his new book as something meant to open a path to the presidency.

Bush said those who ascribe political motivations to his book, written with Clint Bolick, are operating in “Washington world.”

“Yeah, see that’s the Washington world, the world of everything has to have a personal political ambition, motive,” Bush said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “That’s not the case.”

He did say repeatedly that he would address the possibility of running for president when he thought it was time — and that the time was not now.